‘The Netherlands has a nitrogen problem, maybe Suriname can help’

The story of President Chandrikapersad, or Chan, Santokhi for short, is a story of a politician who won elections two years ago with the promise of making major changes in his small country. It is the story of a politician who has to explain day in day out to his impatient people, 500 thousand Surinamese, why these changes are not making progress. A leading role in those statements is reserved for the ruins of his predecessor, who mentions President Santokhi as little as possible by name.

‘I follow the reports about Suriname in the Netherlands closely,’ says the 63-year-old Santokhi by way of greeting in his sleek, bright office, where the air conditioning also holds sway in addition to the head of state. He says it with a twinkle in his eye, but the frown above it raises the question of what strikes him in the Dutch media. ‘The history between Suriname and the Netherlands is one with many ups and downs. But it’s the downs that dominate. For a long time there was even only one subject: Bouterse. The rest didn’t interest anyone.’

Desi Bouterse, there you have him. That unwelcome predecessor, awaiting an appeal for his responsibility for the murder of fifteen political opponents in 1982, the so-called December murders. Bouterse (76) is the man from whom Santokhi says he took over ‘a bankrupt estate’ for two years: a country with 2.5 billion euros in debts to various commercial parties and China. Bouterse had spent it at the IMF, and the relationship with the Netherlands – invariably referred to by Bouterse as ‘the colonizer’ – was also difficult.

Add to that economic damage from the corona pandemic, the floods that ravaged the Surinamese interior this spring, and inflation that has increased by more than 50 percent in a year under the influence of the war in Ukraine. It is more than President Chan Santokhi’s broad shoulders, dressed in a dark blue suit, can carry alone.

When you visited The Hague last year, you expressed the hope that the Netherlands could contribute to Suriname’s economic recovery. Has that request for help yielded anything so far?

‘You have to place this appeal against the classic view on cooperation between Suriname and the Netherlands, in which Suriname says: ‘give me money, give me development aid’. I am not of that. We are two countries with a historical relationship, two mature countries that both have their challenges. The Netherlands has a nitrogen problem, maybe we can help, we have agricultural land. We will soon have oil and gas. You never know what will happen if the war in Ukraine lasts even longer…

‘But the Netherlands is a developed country, we are still a developing country. Rutte has taken the time and effort to call the director of the IMF to support Suriname. Many government leaders have lobbied for our recovery plan, a trajectory up to 2035. We are looking to the future, to the next generation.’

The letters FID, Final Investment Decision, are familiar to every Surinamese. The country, first of all your government, is eagerly waiting for the moment that the French oil company Total Energies officially announces that it will be drilling the recently discovered oil reserves off the Surinamese coast. The oil could turn Suriname’s near future into an economic fairytale. But why is it taking so long?

‘I don’t know. First they would sign the second quarter of this year, then the third, then the fourth. I heard this week that they won’t sign until next year. The boss of Staatsolie is in Paris this week and I have asked him to redress.

‘Due to the war in Ukraine, prices are rising explosively. That is why I want urgent consultations with the IMF. I want to renegotiate, break open the agreements to adapt them to this new reality. I want to take the future income from oil and gas into account, but that requires the FID. I want to be able to provide relief to my population. I want to be able to subsidize food.’

In your country there is a brain drain of medical personnel to countries where they earn more. Especially to Curaçao, sometimes also to the Netherlands. Are you going to discuss this with Prime Minister Rutte?

“It’s on the agenda. It is part of a reorganization of the entire healthcare system, in which we receive a lot of help from the Netherlands. These nurses often also want a bit of security for their families. And as annoying as it is, I can’t forbid them to choose that and leave. I do say: look, the Netherlands, this is a contribution we make to your medical sector. What can I expect from you? That’s that mature way of doing business. Perhaps the Netherlands should fly in temporary medical personnel to Suriname.’

You want structural, future-proof economic reforms. But how much time do you have for that, now that the Surinamese dollar is plummeting and with it the morale of the population? Protests against your government flare up again and again.

‘We are working on a social safety net to alleviate the worst emergency. Civil servants (60 percent of the Surinamese working population, red.) have already received a 25 percent salary increase. But people have been spoiled by the previous government. If you get everything for free for ten years, a certain attitude is created. Look, I’m not Santa Claus. I’m not sitting in this chair distributing presents, I’m sitting in this chair to restore the economy.’

But me people were not only demonstrating against the high prices. They also wanted to remind you that you have pledged to reduce corruption and the practice of appointing family and friends to positions of power. But you also appointed your wife Mellisa Santokhi-Seenacherry to Staatsolie’s supervisory board.

‘If you inherit a run-down country where no semi-government agency is profitable, except for Staatsolie, which also has millions of debts, then you want to get a grip on the situation. And you do that with expert people you trust. You don’t buy it in the supermarket. But society struggled with that appointment, so I said, “Okay, I’m withdrawing my relative.” So I listen. But I’m not going to let this small nation, where unity must prevail between all social, societal, cultural and religious groups, be torn apart by racial hatred.”

With the last sentence, Santokhi refers to the accusation that he would primarily take good care of the Hindustani Surinamese, of which he is one himself. This accusation along the ethnic boundaries of Surinamese society is fueled by Bouterse’s party.

A day after de Volkskrant talked to Santokhi, the previous president appeared in public for the first time in a long time. Bouterse joined an anti-government protest that consisted of less than a hundred men, crowding under the shady canopy of a tamarind tree on Independence Square.

‘Bouta, Bouta!’ As he got out of a blinded car, those in attendance began chanting his political nickname almost frantically. Someone arranged a folding chair. Someone else arranged a better folding chair. Bouterse sat down with a big smile, had a beer brought and played his audience without too many words. His supporters shouted that petrol prices are too high, that the government must go. Bouterse nodded and agreed that this government is ‘stealing and stealing’ from the population. As long as the economic crisis continues, Bouterse will remain a danger to Santokhi.

President Santokhi is not a particularly persuasive orator. But when asked whether he thinks apologies for slavery are useful – a subject on which Prime Minister Rutte is also discussing with the Commemoration of Slavery History Committee – he answers surprisingly enthusiastically.

In the Netherlands, the discussion about whether or not there should be an apology for the slavery past is running high. How are you in that?

‘There is a new generation in which all parties are prepared to talk to each other. That is already a very positive development. I think apologies certainly contribute to a better future. This is not so much a formal apology. If they come from the heart, on the other hand, they can break down so many barriers. Looking back together, lessons learnedand then on to a better future.’

Within the Dutch government coalition, only Rutte’s party, the VVD, is against such excuses. Are you going to try to convince him?

‘I think that Rutte’s party will also realize at some point that there is a need for an apology.’